Northwest berries

The Pacific Northwest is blessed with an abundance of berry varieties.  Some might say that the non-native Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) is the kudzu of the Northwest.  The roots shoot out the giant primocane, a thick arching stem that can reach up to 20 feet in length during the first year of growth, and a mass of branching and fruiting floricanes on the second year.

I found a use for those long thorny primocanes one year when I had damage to my fence from people leaning or sitting on it.  I stapled a length of blackberry primocane along the upper edge of the fence.   Voila, organic natural barbed wire that worked like a charm and cost nothing.

My favorite flavor are the more tart pinkish berries on the cusp of ripeness.  Here are a series of handmade Aura Sun Arts beads with the hobnail texture of blackberries and the range of colors.    The Wikipedia article I linked to above has a nice photo showing this range of colors as the fruit ripens.  It goes from dark green to pale green to pink to dark pink to a very deep inky purple.

ripening berries